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Amid (more) Hugo awards controversy, let's remember some past greats

The Hugo Awards are the Oscars for sci-fi and fantasy fans, so any oddities in the voting data for 2023's ceremony in China are bound to be upsetting. But whatever the reality, Emily H. Wilson finds an unexpected upside

By Emily Wilson

14 February 2024

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Xinhua/Shutterstock (14160416a) This photo taken on Oct. 21, 2023 shows the award ceremony for the 2023 Hugo Awards during the 81st World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon) in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province. The winners of the 2023 Hugo Awards, the world's top prizes for science fiction literature, were announced on Saturday night, with Chinese author Hai Ya taking home the Best Novelette award for "The Space-Time Painter." T. Kingfisher, from the United States, won the Best Novel award for "Nettle & Bone." Samantha Mills won Best Short Story for "Rabbit Test," while Seanan McGuire was named the Best Novella winner for "Where the Drowned Girls Go." The Hugo Awards, first presented in 1953 and presented annually since 1955, are science fiction's most prestigious awards. The Hugo Awards are voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention, which is also responsible for administering them. China Sichuan Chengdu Worldcon 2023 Hugo Awards Ceremony - 21 Oct 2023 — The 2023 Hugo awards in Chengdu, China, are caught up in controversy
Xinhua/Shutterstock

IT IS a truth universally acknowledged that all awards are total bunk except for the ones you personally have lifted into the air in triumph. That rule doesn’t hold, however, if your prize is in some way sullied later on. This, sadly, is the situation for the winners of the 2023 Hugo awards.

The Hugos are the world’s most prestigious science fiction and fantasy (SFF) prizes, launched in 1953 and awarded every year since 1955. Writers have long dreamed of winning one, and readers trust…

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